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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344322">The Final Confrontation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/goosebxrry/pseuds/goosebxrry'>goosebxrry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hermitcraft RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, and then it TUMBLES DOWN A 90 DEGREE ANGLE, evil xisuma is mourning, hels dies and yeah thats a spoiler but its pretty obv, im so sorry, it starts off soft n cute, okay this is not a fun piece if ur looking for fluff, so angst and no happy ending, this pen is absolutely dripping with blood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:27:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344322</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/goosebxrry/pseuds/goosebxrry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Helsknight is going to face his clone, and he’s going to fight him. Only one of them is going to leave alive.</p><p>Evil Xisuma is left to deal with consequences.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Helsknight/Evil Xisuma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Final Confrontation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>mhm yeah major character death warning, be careful and dont read if youre not in the mood for angst and sadness. </p><p>gore tw at the end but its not super graphic i dont think</p><p>this was actually very fun to write tho, ive always enjoyed this kinda stuff :)</p><p>dont ship real ppl even if these are weird clones/evil siblings of the real people you shouldn’t ship</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ex knew there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop Hels from confronting his clone a second time. And he was dreading the moment Hels would tell him what his plans for that day were.</p><p>He remembers the day they’d met, when Hels had stumbled through the portal and he saw him leaning on the wall and clutching his side. He remembers taking him back to his home and letting him heal and rest, watching the slow rise and fall of the knight’s chest for two days, hoping, waiting with bated breath, that he would awaken.</p><p>The interactions once he was fit to talk again were horridly awkward, mainly stemming from the embarrassment Hels was now carrying from him being rescued by someone he’d only ever heard stories of.</p><p>But that wasn’t the last time they’d been together.</p><p>Hels didn’t exactly have a home, so naturally Ex offered his own. The first few days were... strange, to say the least. Hels seemed to be dead set on killing his clone, planning day and night, scheming his revenge and focusing on nothing but that while Ex did his best not to showcase how positively lovestruck he was becoming for the knight.</p><p>Ex was finally getting used to sleeping on the couch, insisting every night that Hels got the bed, when he accidentally slipped up while chatting over a meal and mentioned something about love.</p><p>They were both frozen.</p><p>Then Hels chuckled softly and leaned over the table for a quick kiss.</p><p>That had been two weeks ago, and since then things had been fine. They shared a bed instead of making Ex spend one more night on the less than comfortable sofa, and Hels was spending less time worrying about his clone.</p><p>But he didn’t stop altogether, of course. He had a mission.</p><p>No matter how much Ex pleaded him to try a different method, how often he offered to help or to try and hack the code to release them from the server and actually let them leave— something they couldn’t do while their counterparts stayed behind —Hels was adamant.</p><p>He was going to challenge Wels to a fair knight versus knight battle, without help or cheats, and he was going to win. Then, he and Ex could rule the server.</p><p>It sounded absolutely wonderful, but so, so, unlikely. Ex knew that.</p><p>He’d tried to attack everyone before, that had never worked. He’d wreaked havoc to an extent, and that didn’t do enough. He, himself, had attempted to take Xisuma head-on and alone.</p><p>All that had to offer was more scars, pain, and a few years banned to the void. Alone, dark, going insane with nothing but his own thoughts to keep him company —it was something he refused to let happen to Hels.</p><p>But then again, what could he do to stop him?</p><p>Eventually the day came.</p><p>“Ex,” Hels said, a certain hesitancy to his voice. Ex looked up from his crimson fungi and hoglin stew.</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>They made eye contact, and very slowly, Hels stood up, He walked around the table and pulled his chair with him, reseating himself once he was in a position where he could lean on Ex, which he did.</p><p>“I’m going to challenge Wels today.”</p><p>Ex didn’t reply verbally. He knew it wasn’t up for debate. He just bit his lip and let himself be comforted by the close proximity he was sharing with Hels.</p><p>Their fingers intertwined.</p><p>“...Are you certain?”</p><p>Hels nodded, his dark hair tickling Evil Xisuma’s face. The room was quieter than usual, the quiet noises from the forest outside and the constant bubbling of lava muted for the time being.</p><p>“When?” Ex could hear how broken he sounded, but he didn’t care. He was treating this like a suicide mission, because it was. The hermits might be their clones, their brothers, their servermates, but they weren’t equal. The hermits always had the high ground. They always won every battle.</p><p>“Today, at noon. I already left a letter at his base.”</p><p>Ex let out a quiet breath, already feeling himself go into mourning.</p><p>It wasn’t like it was just a normal duel. Ex had been explained the situation multiple times; this was a fight where only one person woke up the next morning. This was more of a tiebreaker, to put either Ex and Hels in the lead, or to stop them forever.</p><p>It seemed a little out of character for the virtuous and ever-saintly group that made up the hermits, to agree to such terms, but he didn’t question it. After all, his own brother had banned him to the void. He’d just hoped the others were better than that. Wels had seemed to be a decent fellow.</p><p>But then again, there was that tiny chance, that inexplicably small possibility, that Hels would be the victor.</p><p>“I’ll be fine, Ex.” Hels said, moving away just far enough to press a kiss to Ex’s cheek. “You’ll see. It’ll be okay.”</p><p>He nodded hopelessly.</p><p>The rest of the morning was spent with Hels trying to cheer Ex up in the last few hours before the fight, trying to make him believe that by nightfall they would be crowned king and king of Hermitcraft. God, his positivity towards their win was never-ending.</p><p>Ex let himself be dragged along as Hels took him to all their favourite places so far, the little overhang by the lava lake, the little clearing in the forest with a handmade bench and a well— made only for decoration, if course. There was no water.</p><p>Finally the time came and Hels collected his things. A sword, a crossbow, some armour, a few golden apples and golden carrots— the usual things you would take into a battle.</p><p>They walked side by side to the coordinates they would need to build the portal. Turns out Hels had told Wels to meet him in some random meadow, to avoid tampering with the results using the advantage of knowing the battlefield.</p><p>The frame was finished and Ex did the honours. It flickered to life.</p><p>“So, I’ll come back through this portal when I’m done with him, okay?” Hels said, not going through just yet. They had four minutes.</p><p>“Yeah.” Ex replied. His voice sounded flat, even to his own ears.</p><p>Hels frowned, and he pulled his visor up again, cinnabar red eyes focusing on Ex as he pulled him down into a tight hug, smiling melancholically as Ex buried his face into his neck, helmet on the ground by the portal frame.</p><p>“I’m serious, Ex, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” He said, comfortingly petting Ex’s tangled white hair. They stayed like that, unwilling to let go, until the very last second.</p><p>Hels leaned away. Ex gave one last quick squeeze before letting go.</p><p>“I’ll see you in a few minutes,” Hels said with a soft smile, pulling his visor right back down to cover his breathtaking red eyes.</p><p>“I love you.”</p><p>“I love you too, Exy.”</p><p>And he disappeared through the purple patterns in the portal.</p><p>A few minutes passed, and Ex could make out warped conversation through the gateway. It sounded like Hels sometimes, and other times it sounded like a strange version of him, higher pitched, different and wrong to his ears.</p><p>He could hear metal clashing with metal.</p><p>And he could head a shriek, cut short and morphed into something not dissimilar to a sob.</p><p>Both voices sounded too close for Ex to be able to tell who had been injured, and he hated it. He was getting antsy, waiting for Hels to step through the portal with a heaving chest and bloodstained sword.</p><p>He wasn’t supposed to go through, Hels had made that clear. He didn’t want the other hermits to know that Ex even existed in this server, dragged through against his will into the new world. They weren’t even aware of his presence yet; he didn’t have a communicator.</p><p>But ten minutes after the contorted shriek and five minutes of silence, he couldn’t bare to stay behind any longer. He grabbed his helmet, tucked it under his arm, and stepped through the portal.</p><p>It was strange, breathing Overworld air again and having wind and sunshine on his face. Grass brushed his legs and the scent of flowers reached his nose.</p><p>But he seemed to be alone. A quick glance at the scene showed no Welsknight, no hermits, no animals. But also no Helsknight.</p><p>At least, not until he took a closer look. A crumpled grey form was hidden by tall grass, lying on its side a few metres away. It didn’t appear to be breathing very deeply, if at all.</p><p>Ex took one step towards it— no, towards him —then another, and another, his head spinning. He ran the rest of the way over to crouch beside Hels.</p><p>He was, in fact, breathing when Ex looked. He was also, to Ex’s horror, sobbing and convulsing, clutching his side. Blood ran down his face, dribbling at an alarming and consistent rate from his mouth and nose, and the dirt around his abdomen was quickly turning to a sticky, gross, mixture of blood and mud. His eyes were clenched shut in a similar fashion to the way his teeth were gritted.</p><p>Ex could feel panic rising within him as he reached into his inventory, fishing out a potion and a golden apple.</p><p>He tried to pull Hels into a sitting position so he could drink without choking, but all he ended up doing was barely uprighting him to lean against his chest and earning a pained scream in response. Was there more blood now? </p><p>“Shh, it’s just me,” He tried to sound calm, he really did. He pushed the bottle against Hel’s lips, watching at the fuchsia liquid quickly turned a murky magenta-red as blood mixed in. He barely managed to swallow any of it.</p><p>Yet, it seemed to work ever so slightly. His eyes opened and the wounds slowed a little, but he was barely in any shape to be called okay.</p><p>His eyes seemed to be glazed over as he stared up at Ex, that terrified expression showing no recognition.</p><p>“Hels, it’s me,” He said. No response. He kept cutting the golden apple into manageable slices with his knife. He didn’t even feel as the blade slit his finger, too preoccupied with trying to keep the pure horror that he was holding a dying man in his arms from taking over.</p><p>He pushed a slice against Hel’s mouth. Hels coughed weakly.</p><p>“Hels, you need to eat it. It’ll save you,” Ex said, hoping that his words were true. Hels glanced at him through his peripheral vision.</p><p>“Exy—“</p><p>“No! Don’t talk. Please. Just eat the apple, damn it!” Evil Xisuma quickly cut him off, tears stinging at his eyes. Hels frowned, leaning against his chest. The next thing he did was probably his best attempt at biting at the apple slice, but all he really ended up doing was weakly biting down on the air in front of it.</p><p>And then, he went completely limp.</p><p>“H-Hels?”</p><p>God, he sounded like a broken child. He shook Hels’ body. He didn’t react.</p><p>“Hels you— no, no, please,” He didn’t want to focus on the fact that his chest had stopped rising and falling, on the fact that he wasn’t going to reply, that he wasn’t alive. He knew it was true, he’d seen death before. He knew what it looked like.</p><p>But he’d never experienced it like this before. He’d never cared.</p><p>A sob wracked his body and he pulled Hels a little closer to him, cradling his corpse while he cried and sobbed and screamed at the too-happy world around them.</p><p>Who knows how long he stayed like that, but at some point he finally held Hels against his chest and stood. He deserved a proper burial, or at least to be left somewhere nice, not just discarded in a field, still alive, still in pain and suffering.</p><p>Like how Welsknight had discarded him in a field, still alive and in pain and suffering.</p><p>What had started off as grief was transforming into anger, then fury, then pure rage. Wels had killed him. Wels had killed the only thing worth protecting in this entire server.</p><p>And Ex sure as hell wasn’t letting him get away with that.</p><p>As soon as he carried him back through the portal, dug a trench in the nylium and covered it back up, leaving behind a simple and small rock to mark it— he could decorate later, leave a few gifts, some of his belongings —he set out again.</p><p>He hadn’t been like this for years. This ready to murder. To get revenge.</p><p>Evil Xisuma was back, and this time, he wasn’t going to fail— he had a more important motive than proving to whoever was watching that he was better than his brother.</p><p>No, today he was out for vengeance. And he could already see the magenta and purple roofs of his first victim’s home.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>:). i hope you have a lovely morning/evening/afternoon :)))))</p></blockquote></div></div>
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